


protect

by Harmonica_Smile (Rescue_Remedy)



Series: Women of One Piece Flash Fiction [6]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Canon Universe, Character Study, Complete, Defensive tactics are a valid choice, Dofmaingo's Dressrosa is mentioned but he is not directly in the fic, Dressrosa Arc, Dressrosa colosseum reflection, Dressrosan politics, Flash Fic, Gen, Resistance, Riku Dold III mentioned, Vive la Resistance, Where would Dressrosa be without Doflamingo (a lot better off), Women! Wanted Zine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:48:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24244558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rescue_Remedy/pseuds/Harmonica_Smile
Summary: Guns pushed against the temples of the hooded, the gagged. Dissenters led to soccer fields in the dead of night.If Rebecca's life wasn't controlled by another, she wouldn't pick up the sword at all.
Series: Women of One Piece Flash Fiction [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1732228
Kudos: 8
Collections: Women! Wanted Zine: Flash Fics





	protect

* * *

**protect**

* * *

Conscientious objectors jailed, protesters silenced, populations disappeared. Guns pushed against the temples of the hooded, the gagged. Dissenters led to soccer fields in the dead of night.

Loyal to the wrong brand of royalty and their king _had_ decimated them; ridden through town cutting down everyone in his path, in the army's path. Sabres and scimitars glinting from the light of the fires burning homes. Dold's forces had robbed them blind. Terrorised them.

Victors become justice. Those who won't fight are easily silenced through torture, death, status changes. Manual labour was too good for betrayers of the kingdom but cogs need to turn, so the treacherous were bundled from their homes under the cover of darkness to the factories. Butchers, bakers, candlestick makers. Families didn't know where they went, soon forgot. Even the babas didn't remember.

Heroes were enemies and had destroyed the state. And then wouldn't fight. Defensive strategies left them standing and their challengers vanquished and won their battles for them. But they were weak. They'd destroyed the state and refused to fight.

The colosseum kept the hoi polloi occupied while their relatives inhaled dirt in mass graves, while they silently toiled, while the only sunlight they saw were slanted fingers through the bars of their cells. Shortening and lengthening with the seasons.

Rebecca survived. Protecting her mother's wishes and a legacy that didn't turn prole against prole, pleb against pleb. Not everyone born royal used power to suppress. Not everyone fallen from royalty used power to suppress. But power can always suppress.

Collaborators paraded through the streets with placards around their necks. A grandfather reported his wife for using the wrong spice, a citizen and toy whispered together after curfew. It was safer to condemn. Wiser.

As people spoke less, censure became fact, but Rebecca knew. She came from the family. She remembered a rainy night and a soldier's kindness. To guard the truth she fought defensively. If her life wasn't controlled by another, she wouldn't pick up the sword at all.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Prompt: protect**  
>  **Word limit: 350**. (mine's 348, I think, minus the title, until I edit more of course!—340 after editing).
> 
> I've always been interested in this idea of Rebecca very definitely being forced to do something she didn't want to do, and actually doing it pretty well. I expand upon if far more in an AU that ties into the whole Dressrosan arc in the [third chapter of _Taxi_](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16701496/chapters/41705984), if you want to read more. That chapter can be read standalone (I think).
> 
> This by far—Rebecca's wish not to fight but having to and having it forced upon her on a regular basis (her sword is blunt in the colosseum. Diamante doesn't provide her or the other gladiator/captives with sharpened blades)—is something that really interests me about her story. Along with the whole bread and circuses, and cruelty for entertainment that the Romans in particular employed kinda placed in a One Piece context. 
> 
> Plus, the obvious modern day parallels too for any country under tyrannical governance. It's the normalcy/normalising of abuse that allows it to occur.
> 
> Anyway, this is another short for the [womanwantedzine](https://womenwantedzine.tumblr.com/). I'm not sure how many more shorts are planned, but the creative production process is underway soon...so I guess we'll find out. Mine will be for Shakky.
> 
> Would love to know your thoughts, and thanks for reading!


End file.
